


A First for Everything

by winterune



Series: Natsume Week 2019 [2]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Best Friends, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Party, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Tumblr: Natsume Week, Tumblr: Natsume Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 18:19:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19446964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterune/pseuds/winterune
Summary: It was a day after Natsume’s birthday and his friends prepare a party for him.





	A First for Everything

**Author's Note:**

> This is an entry for the Natsume Week 2019 event on tumblr  
> Day 2 Prompt: Adventure/Experience
> 
> Happy belated birthday, Natsume! I planned to write something on his birthday yesterday but couldn't fit it into the prompt, so here is my birthday fic for our dear boy, Natsume ^^ I hope you enjoy :D (I'm setting the fic on Natsume's 2nd year of high school)

“A karaoke place?” Natsume asked as he read the sign of the building they were about to enter, dread filling his heart. Nishimura was grinning from ear-to-ear beside him. “What are we doing in a karaoke place?” Natsume asked slowly, his attention shifting to friend, not really wanting to hear the answer.

“Of course it’s to celebrate your birthday,” Nishimura said matter-of-factly. Natsume winced slightly, already guessing that would be the answer. “I mean, you practically dropped a bomb on us yesterday when you said it was your birthday and we had no time to buy presents let alone give you a proper party—”

“But that’s why I asked you all to come to the party Touko-san planned,” Natsume protested, because really, they didn’t need to go all this way.

He never even had parties before. He had tried to stop Touko from planning one, but Touko was persistent and she wouldn’t budge. Natsume figured they would have a normal, modest party at home, but instead, Touko had gone all out with the dishes and Shigeru had bought a really delicious strawberry cake from a bakery near his workplace and both of them had insisted Natsume invite all of his friends. And yet, when he told them all about it yesterday, everyone was dumbstruck and none of them wanted to come, saying how they needed to go on an immediate gift-shopping and that Natsume had to keep the next day free of any schedule.

“That was your quality time with your family, Natsume,” Kitamoto piped in. “ _We_ ,”—Kitamoto emphasized, his finger moving around the circle of four boys—“have to have our own party.”

So here they were, in front of a karaoke place. Nishimura and Kitamoto pulled Natsume inside, half forcing him to follow. He glanced at Tanuma beside him, who also had a somewhat worried look on his face.

“Did you know anything about this?” Natsume whispered when Nishimura and Kitamoto had gone off to book a room at the reception.

“I knew they were planning something, so yeah I guess? We couldn’t a reach a decision yesterday so they decided to take the matter to their own hands and told all of us to go home,” Tanuma explained.

By _all of us_ , he meant Taki and Sasada too. The girls hadn’t arrived yet. They had separated away from the group when they spotted a cute little store by the street and told the boys to go first.

Natsume was nervous. He had never been to one of these places before. Before he lived with the Fujiwaras, he had heard his classmates would sometimes talk about going to one after school. In his mind, this place was loud, and dim—a place where people hung out. Now that he was really here, he realized it wasn’t exactly was he had thought it was, but still it made him felt out of place.

Maybe they should have changed out of their school uniform first. Right when school was over, they had dragged him away and boarded a train to the next town over, never saying once where they were going.

The entrance doors slid open and in came Taki and Sasada, right around the time Nishimura and Kitamoto finished booking their room.

“Did you buy anything?” Kitamoto asked.

“Sure did!” Sasada replied, lifting a small pink bag to the air.

The attendant came over and told them their room was ready. But just as they were about to follow him, Taki suddenly said that she needed to go to the bathroom and Sasada told everyone to go first. So the boys left them, and with each step, Natsume felt his heart become heavier.

He never had a reason to come to this place even though he was curious. But, did he really have to sing?

* * *

A couple dim lamps lit the room that was big enough to fit 6 people. A large TV screen on one side, a set of red couches on the other, and a coffee table in-between. They took their seats and Kitamoto and Nishimura sang the first song, a pop song that Natsume had never heard of. Natsume glanced at Tanuma when he noticed his friend was tapping his foot to the rhythm. Tanuma shrugged with a resigned grin. “They’ve been playing the song _everywhere_ it just kind of stuck in your head after a while,” was what he said.

Even so, Natsume had never once heard the song before. Should he watch more TV? Or go out to places more—places that didn’t involve youkai? Because that was it: on almost every day of his daily life, there was always a youkai involved. Be that Nyanko-sensei, or the Dog Circle, or some random youkai seeking to have their names returned or to take the Book for themselves. If not, one way or another, Natori would appear in his life, or he would somehow get entangled with the exorcists.

Seeing his friends singing and swaying to the rhythm of the song, he realized once again that his life was far from a normal one.

When Taki and Sasada joined them, they were indignant that the boys hadn’t let Natsume pick the first song. “It’s his party, for God’s sake!” Sasada exclaimed.

“No—No, I’m good,” Natsume stammered, flustered. “You guys just…sing first.” He tried his best to smile but he knew his smile was strained. It was one thing that he couldn’t sing, but what was he doing in a karaoke when he probably didn’t know any of these songs? He couldn’t possibly tell them that, after all they had gone through to plan this out.

Sasada glared at Nishimura and Kitamoto and Natsume had half a mind to stop a fight on the brink of exploding when Taki said, “Well, if that’s what you want…what if we let Natsume-kun sing last?”

Natsume whipped his head toward Taki, eyes wide, jaws slightly ajar. She raised her eyebrows questioningly at his shocked expression.

“Save the best for the last, as they say,” Tanuma agreed with a nod.

“Wha—?” Natsume’s head whirled toward Tanuma this time, and before he could put any cent into the conversation, Sasada was already clasping her hands together and said, “That’s a great idea!”

Beside her, Nishimura was scowling and he said to the microphone, “That was our idea too, you know.”

“Wait, you didn’t say anything about that!” Natsume protested. He had thought if he didn’t speak up and just let everyone had a good time, they would forget that he hadn’t sing anything.

“What are you saying, Natsume? Of course you’re singing,” Kitamoto said. “There’s no way the birthday boy doesn’t sing in his own party.”

“No, but, really, I don’t—you don’t have to—” He hated himself that he couldn’t even form a proper sentence. His friends probably thought he was being too modest, and maybe he would be if he wasn’t tone deaf, but in truth, Natsume really didn’t know what song he would pick and he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of his friends.

But Sasada wasn’t having any of it and she brought her face to Natsume’s eye level, a frown on her face. “Natsume-kun,” she said. Natsume jerked at Sasada’s tone, as if she was scolding him. “This is your birthday party.” But then she smiled and said, “Live a little.”

 _Live a little_.

The simple words touched something deep in Natsume. Having it ingrained in his mind and body for years, Natsume had grown to live a cautious life. _Stay low. Don’t pull attention to yourself. Do what everyone tells you to do. You’ll avoid half of the trouble you’ll bring._

“O—Okay,” he mumbled quietly.

Maybe, he _should_ live a little. For once, maybe he could stop thinking about youkai and the trouble he would cause his friends. For once, maybe he could try living in the present and enjoy the moment. Seeing his friends standing on their feet, singing songs he didn’t know, he found himself swaying with the rhythm from time to time. They would laugh at some of the song choices and giggle at off-key notes. They would choose songs everyone knew to sing together and before long, Natsume was already joining in the fun that he almost forgot his time to sing was almost there. So when Tanuma asked what song he wanted to sing, Natsume took a moment to realize he still didn’t know what song to choose.

In the end, he went with a really old children song he remembered from when he was a child and his friends chuckled at his choice.

“Sorry, I don’t know any other songs,” Natsume explained with a sheepish smile, standing in front of all of them. “It’s my first time to a karaoke and I never sang before so, sorry if I’m not good.”

“Wait,” Nishimura said, a hand up in the air. “This is your first time in a karaoke?”

Natsume nodded.

“And you never sang before?” Sasada asked.

Natsume shrugged.

His friends all looked at one another and he expected them to burst out laughing but instead, they shared smiles and grins, and then Kitamoto said, “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We’d have brought you here earlier.”

“Well, there’s a first for everything, right?” Tanuma added.

They were right, as usual. The song started and Natsume tried his best to follow the lyrics. He stumbled in a few places but picked up his pace as the music slowly coaxed something out of his memory—of years and years ago, sitting in front of a television on a Sunday morning, a cartoon being shown.

It had been quite a popular show in its time and everyone knew the song. After a while, they joined in and suddenly, Natsume felt tears pricking his eyes. He never had a normal life and asking for one might be impossible, what was with all the youkai following him wherever he went. But being there, singing with people he could call his friends, made him think that it wasn’t truly out of reach.

All of a sudden, the lights went out with a crash and the girls plus Nishimura screamed.

“The hell?!” Nishimura shouted. It seemed he had tried to stand up so suddenly his knee hit the coffee table with a loud thud and he crashed back onto the couch, cursing under his breath. Everyone were talking over everyone else while Natsume stayed where he stood, unable to move, his hand gripping the microphone until his knuckles went white.

 _A youkai?!_ his mind frantically thought.

“Wait, everyone, calm down,” Tanuma said over the noise. “Taki, can you try the switch?”

Taki did, reaching up to the lamp switch above her. It didn’t work.

“Where’s the call-for-service button,” Kitamoto muttered to himself. There were buttons on the table and he reached out to punch whatever buttons he could find. Nothing happened.

A few minutes passed without any signs of the light turning back on, and Nishimura was heard muttering, “I’m getting a refund for this,” when suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Taki was closest to it, so she stood up, and opened it slightly.

The staff on the other side was saying how it’d take several more minutes to have the electricity back up. They left after they apologized and silence fell.

“Well, this sucks,” Kitamoto said.

“I’ll go outside for a bit,” Tanuma piped up.

“I’ll go with you,” Taki joined in.

Both of them left and the four of them were once again trapped in darkness. Natsume had gotten back to his seat and Sasada had turned on the light on her phone so they could at least see each other.

A few minutes later, someone knocked on their door again and Sasada stood up, saying how it must be the staffs with more news on the sudden blackout. But just as Sasada opened the door, the two people from the other side suddenly sang a _Happy Birthday_ song and Natsume looked up, surprised.

Taki was entering the room with a little round chocolate cake on her hand, the candles _17_ propped up on the surface. Tanuma and Sasada were suddenly singing the song, as well as Nishimura and Kitamoto who had stood up to stand and sing beside the others. Natsume was speechless.

The song ended and Natsume received the cake from Taki. “Make a wish,” she said.

Natsume still couldn’t process what was happening. “Did you plan all this?” was the first question he asked.

“Not the blackout, no,” Tanuma said.

“It kind of set up the surprise easier, huh?” Kitamoto added.

“But, when did you—?”

“Remember when I went to the bathroom earlier?” Taki asked. “Yeah, I was asking the staff if they could keep the cake for a while.”

“We bought it when we separated a while back,” Sasada said.

But he didn’t see any sort of box that even resembled a cake when they entered the building.

“Come on, the details don’t matter!” Nishimura said impatiently. “Make a wish! Then we’ll be able to eat the cake.”

Sasada slapped Nishimura across the head and it was such a mundane scene of Sasada and Nishimura fighting and arguing that Natsume found himself laughing. There was nothing to wish for because all his wish were already in front of him. His first surprise party with his first friends and his first time in a karaoke. A truly normal life might be impossible for him, but it was in moments like this where he could feel like he was any other seventeen-year-old boy.

**~ END ~**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading^^ I hope you liked it. Please leave a comment or two and tell me what you think :D Thanks!


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